A 34-year-old man identified as Faruq Seidu allegedly contracted three men to abduct his brother’s seven-year-old child, Abdulmalik Musa and killed him after collecting a ransom of N300,000.
The deceased was reportedly kidnapped last week from his parents’ residence at Sabo Ilupeju, Abeokuta, Ogun State, by the syndicate in connivance with Seidu.
Seidu and the suspected kidnappers, Hassan Hussein, 30; Habib Nurah, 24; and Muhammed Bello, 42, were arrested by men of the state police command and paraded on Monday at the crime scene, besides the Ogun River, Lafenwa, Abeokuta, where the boy was allegedly strangled and thrown into the river.
The suspects took the police to the crime scene, where the remains of the boy were found floating on the water. The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who paraded the suspects, described the incident as man’s inhumanity to a fellow man.
He said investigation revealed that Seidu contracted his three friends to execute the heinous act because of the refusal of his brother, the father of the deceased, Abdul-hammed Musa, to give him money to marry a third wife.
Oyeyemi explained that Seidu and his accomplices had initially demanded N5m ransom, but later reduced it to N300,000 due to the plea by the victim’s father. According to the PPRO, the incident happened on December 11, 2019, when the parents reported at the Sabo Police Station in Ilupeju, Abeokuta, that the boy had been kidnapped.
Oyeyemi said Abdulmalik was killed because he recognized his uncle, Seidu, who was afraid of being exposed.
He stated, “This is a breakthrough in respect of an abduction and murder; what happened here is the height of man’s inhumanity to man. On December 11, 2019, a case of abduction was reported at the Sabo Division in Ilupeju, Abeokuta.
“About 24 hours later, the kidnappers made a request for N5m and we asked the family to play along with them and later they agreed to take N300,000 and after payment, they still killed the boy and threw his corpse in the river.
“I want to appeal to members of the public to trust nobody, because if a brother could do this to his brother, then who can be trusted? But, I want to sound a serious warning to criminals in the state and I will be borrowing from the words of the governor, who he said hell fire would be more conducive for criminals than Ogun State.”
The prime suspect, Seidu, claimed to be innocent of the crime. “I never asked anyone to kidnap my brother’s son, I only saw this one (pointing to another suspect) with the boy on a motorcycle, but I never discussed anything with them; I only greeted them and left,” he stated.
Seidu’s regular motorcyclist, Hussein, however, faulted him by claiming that he contracted them to abduct the boy before he personally killed him on the grounds that he recognized him. Hussein said while pointing at Seidu;
“He is a brother to Alhaji (the deceased boy’s father). He said he wanted to marry a new wife and Alhaji did not want to give him money; so, he asked us to kidnap the boy. After Alhaji gave us the ransom, Seidu came and said he was going to kill his nephew because the boy recognized him and I asked him why, but he never answered me.
“When Seidu collected the ransom, he handed it over to me after he had removed N5,500. He wants to marry a new wife after he lost his first wife and divorced the second. The boy knew Seidu very well; whenever he was in the boy’s house, Abdulmalik would run to greet him. He gave him biscuit before he took him away on the day of the kidnap.
“He told me that he would kill the boy and he threw his corpse into the river from the bridge.” When asked where he was when the boy was killed, Hussein claimed that he did not follow Seidu, adding that he was only informed by the boy’s uncle after he had killed him.
